ACILA urges President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration to pass Int’ Criminal Court Bill

Africa Center for International Law and Accountability (ACILA) has urged the Akufo-Addo administration to prioritize the passage of the International Criminal Court Bill to give effect to the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Ghana.

A statement signed by ACILA executive director, Mr. William Nyarko, said that even though Ghana is to be commended for demonstrating support for international justice by ratifying the Rome Statute in 1999 and has since had a distinguished Ghanaian serve as a Judge on the ICC, Ghana is still required to meet its obligations under the Rome Statute and domesticate the Statute. The Rome Statute set up the Court (ICC) at The Hague, Netherlands, and the Court is authorized to bring to trial persons who commit international crimes such as crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes when a state is unwilling or unable to prosecute such persons.

When passed into law, Ghana’s ICC law will provide the legal framework for the courts in Ghana to prosecute persons who commit crimes tried by the ICC as well as enable the ICC to prosecute cases that Ghanaian courts are unable to prosecute.

The statement by the Executive Director indicated that Executive action has stalled on the Ghana ICC bill, which was drafted in April 2016, adding that as an early adopter of the Rome Statute in 1998, Ghana should have domesticated the Statute when it came into force in 2002.

The statement noted that in 2012 when Ghana’s human rights record came up for review at the United Nations Human Rights Council under the Universal Periodic Review mechanism in Geneva, Ghana accepted a recommendation to domesticate the Rome Statute by the next review cycle in November 2017.

Ghana’s human rights record will be reviewed again under the UPR in November 2017 but regrettably Ghana has not met its international obligation nearly five years after it had accepted the recommendation, the statement added.

ACILA also urged Ghana to publicly support international justice and the work of the ICC while calling for reforms at the ICC.

The call for Ghana to domesticate the Rome Statute is considered timely coming at a time when there had been persistent calls by majority of African leaders for mass withdrawal from the ICC. In addition, Ghana was not among the few countries that voted against the non-binding resolution that was adopted by the African Union on 31 January 2017, in Addis Ababa for mass withdrawal from the ICC.